LMC/SMC over volcanoes

[starfinder]

Here is an image which I took on early Friday morning last week just before sunrise. Visible are the two Magellanic Clouds over a landscape of volcanoes in East Java.

The picture was taken from a vantage point in the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park known as the Mt Penanjakan viewpoint (reportedly at 2770m / 9087 ft).

Spanning the entire foreground landscape is the approx 10km wide Tengger caldera (i.e the crater top of a stratovolcano), which itself contains another 5 volcanic cones, of which the most well-known is Mt Bromo. To top it all, in the background of the foreground is the tallest mountain in Java, known as Mt Semeru (a.k.a Gunung Mahameru), at 3,676m / 12,060ft.

The view is quite amazing!

More info on that area can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromo_Teng ... ional_Park

As one of the cones (Mt Bromo) can be seen emitting clouds of smoke, the theme of this image could be: galactic clouds over volcanic clouds. How about that?

This particular image was taken at the crack of dawn whilst the stars were still faintly visible and as the foreground landscape was slowly being lit. Therefore, when I later adjusted the contrast and brightness levels with Photoshop, it was quite difficult to find the right balance between the foreground landscape and background sky.

Incidentally, that was the night of the Perseids peak, and I managed to see about 15 meteors, including 3 quite bright ones. More about that later.

For now, here are the image details:
- Single exposure taken with Canon EOS 350D, 20 seconds at ISO 1600, Sigma 17-70mm lens at 17mm at f/2.8. Birghtness/contrast adjusted.



[Edit in July 2012: broken photo links in this thread repaired]

[Clifford60]

Wow, so many going to the same place for tour. Btw, nice shot.

[swat_pup6433]

woa looks like bromo is getting popular again! lol did u guys go climb ijan too ?

[starfinder]

Tks, Clifford!

Swat_pup, yes, our group also "climbed" to the top of the Kawa Ijen crater, which is situated about 100km east of the Tengger-Bromo crater on another volcanic mountain complex.

Basically, the tour van drove up to a carpark about 1000-2000 ft below the Ijen crater, and we walked up a simple but at times steep footpath for over an hour to reach the crater's rim. Below the rim in the bowl of the crater is a turquoise-coloured sulphuric acid lake. Another amazing sight!

Lots of labourers were mining large pieces of sulphur near the shores of the lake and carrying 70+kg loads away.

More info on this volcano may be found here:
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano ... m=0603-35=

I went on a photography tour run by SgTrekkers.com. No more of this tour in 2010, but they will be running tours to other places:
http://www.sgtrekker.com/schedule-of-events.aspx


Here is a photo which I took of the Kawa Ijen crater and lake; the sulphur deposits can be seen at the bottom left:



[Edit in July 2012: broken photo link repaired]

[swat_pup6433]

ahh *jealous* u guys get to see the nice acid lake! when i was there in march the smoke was in our direction and at the crater mouth, huge wind picked up and the thick smoke around us turned from white to greenish yellow! is like in a war movie when everyone is under gas attack! LOL and then a big rain started.. so we had to get back down. hmm your travel itinerary looks the same as mine! lol did you guys go with the "sg trekkers" ?

[Gary]

Amazing photography! Nobody in the trip brought a bino or a small telescope?

[starfinder]

Yes, I went with SgTrekkers as noted above. I suppose Swat-Pupp did too. Tachyon was in the same group as me, by coincidence.

I only brought a small bino along as my main focus was to view the Perseids, astronomy-wise.

Regarding Bromo, when our tour group arrived at the inn near the Bromo area (Hotel Yoshi, about 5km from the main crater's rim) around 9pm, I quickly checked out the skies and saw that it was superbly clear with the Milky Way arcing across. I then told the whole group that they simply must come out to see it, bec it's a rare sight for most Singaporeans. And they were sure glad to do so. Many of us spent betwn 2-5 hours on a meteor watch and I introduced the constellations. Most had not seen the Milky Way or meteors before, or just plain so many stars. Now, uncle Remus must surely approve of what I did to intro astronomy to others. There!

We viewed the skies from a backyard vegetable plot behind the inn. The Milky Way was bright and clear, with the dust lanes distinct. So definitely a dark sky location. Was cold too, but comfortably bearable with winter clothing.

The people in our group saw many meteors, ranging from 1 to over 10 each. I personally saw perhaps just over a dozen, including 3 bright ones. Not all were Perseids.

I told the group the next day that they were very lucky to see the main central bulge of the Milky Way. It required 4 factors taking place at the same time:
(i) Being at a dark sky rural location away from city lights
(ii) Not cloudy conditions
(iii) The central bulge of the Milky Way being up in the sky at that time
(iv) Moon free (it was just after New Moon)

So I told them they had hit the jackpot, but not to expect it too often bec the nature of astronomy is often about experiencing disappointment.

Below are two photos which I took whilst observing next to the inn (Hotel Yoshi); each a single frame of 20 seconds exposure at ISO 1600, Sigma 17-70mm lens at 17mm, at f/2.8, Canon EOS 350D. Simple brightness and contrast boost with Photoshop on the Milky Way photo only.






[Edit in July 2012: broken photo links repaired]

[Airconvent]

Hey Gavin
Great shots but they look very similar to tachyon's. Seems you took at the exact spot right down to the celebrity tree!
BTW, when you said acid rain, I presume its because of condensation of the sulphuric acid from th volcano and it into the lake ? Does it mean if you drop into the lake, you will be dissolved ?

Thanks for sharing!

[starfinder]

Hi Rich, thanks! Yes, we took the astro photos from the same vegetable garden plot behind our inn.

Regarding the acid lake at Kawah Ijen, I suppose it is a mix of rain water and the sulphurous and other acidic gases being emitted from the volcano. About falling into the lake, I have no clue whether a person will last 3 seconds or just 1 second. Ha..... Anyway, some info on it may be found here:
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano ... m=0603-35=



And here are several more photos, all taken from the Mt Bromo region:

1. View from the Mt Penanjakan Viewpoint (altitude around 2700m / 8800ft) of the approx 10km wide Tengger Caldera with 5 volcanic cones in it (of which Mt Bromo is the smoking one on the left, and Mt Batok is the one in the foreground centre).
Mt Semeru (3676m, 12060ft) is tall peak in the background.



2. Shadow of our mountain peak seen just after sunrise.



3. View of Mt Bromo from the floor of the Tengger Caldera in the "Pasir Laut" (Sea of Sand, i.e. black volcanic sand):



4. View into the smoking crater of Mt Bromo from its rim:


5. View of Mt Batok from atop Mt Bromo:


[Edit in July 2012: broken photo links repaired]

[jiahao1986]

These are great photos man. I've been thinking of shooting some thing like your first photo for a long time. I'll probably visit the place when Gunung Semeru is active.

Besides, for Kawah Ijen, if you are keen, can visit the place again at night. You will see blue sulfur flames, which is really rare on earth. Below is a link to some photos:

http://www.tboeckel.de/EFSF/efsf_wv/ind ... a_08_e.htm